What doesn’t check out is why the government still gave them a new contract between this and Starlink and SpaceX colluding with the Russian military against Ukraine
The US government is getting something out of the deal they’re not talking about. Probably CALEA-like access to what’s going across the Starlink network.
AFAIK, Starlink didn’t “collude” with anyone, they just stopped offering free service. I think that was a jerk move, but I doubt there’s any kind of political collusion.
Musk was now claiming that at the time of the in-question situation, Starlink access around Crimea was not turned on. The reason was because the U.S. had imposed sanctions on Russia, and SpaceX was not allowed to turn on connectivity in Crimea without explicit government approval. Moreover, Musk said, Ukraine didn’t give SpaceX any “advance warning or heads up.” He said he got urgent calls from the Ukrainian government in the middle of the night saying that he needed to turn on Starlink access in Crimea.
Basically, Starlink never operated in Crimea due to US sanctions on Russia, and the Ukrainian president made urgent calls to enable it. Musk continues:
He added that although he’s not U.S. President Joe Biden’s biggest fan, if he had received a presidential directive to turn on Starlink connectivity in Crimea, he would have done so, because he does “regard the president as the chief executive officer of the country.” But no such requests came through, he said.
So that sounds reasonable. Starlink never operated in Crimea, and enabling it for Ukraine there could be considered an act of war.
So again, I don’t see political collusion here, instead the opposite: Musk didn’t want to spark more hostilities.
It’s an Elon company so that checks out…
What doesn’t check out is why the government still gave them a new contract between this and Starlink and SpaceX colluding with the Russian military against Ukraine
The US government is getting something out of the deal they’re not talking about. Probably CALEA-like access to what’s going across the Starlink network.
AFAIK, Starlink didn’t “collude” with anyone, they just stopped offering free service. I think that was a jerk move, but I doubt there’s any kind of political collusion.
Turning it off right when Ukraine was about to launch an offensive, definitely no collusion there what a coincidence on the timing.
My comment was inaccurate, here’s a potentially more accurate reason for why Starlink didn’t enable access for Ukraine:
Basically, Starlink never operated in Crimea due to US sanctions on Russia, and the Ukrainian president made urgent calls to enable it. Musk continues:
So that sounds reasonable. Starlink never operated in Crimea, and enabling it for Ukraine there could be considered an act of war.
So again, I don’t see political collusion here, instead the opposite: Musk didn’t want to spark more hostilities.